


Allie

by bboiseux



Series: Critical Role Campaign 1 [14]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Drinking to Cope, F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25059319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bboiseux/pseuds/bboiseux
Summary: After the battle,  Allura was furious that Kima risked herself like that.  That was all it was, nothing more.Pre-stream, adventurers Allura and Kima get feelings.Reading Time:abt 7 minutes
Relationships: Kima/Allura Vysoren
Series: Critical Role Campaign 1 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/947229
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	Allie

When Kima came back to consciousness, she felt a sharp tug at her arm and her head jerked to the side … to Allura’s face. Allura was typically the height of poise and distance, both socially and in combat. Her blue robes remained immaculate (with a little help from prestidigitation) and the hair always hung in perfect thick braids at either side. Now, however, her face was matted with soot, her hair singed on one side, her robe torn on one arm. Most of all though, Kima noticed that Allura’s cool blue eyes—eyes that always pierced so sharply—were red and puffy, the whites traced with bloody paths.

Kima tried to speak and then coughed and tried again: “Allura, are you okay? Did you get too hurt?”

Allura gave one last jerk at the bandage she was wrapping around Kima’s arm. She didn’t look at Kima. Her eyes traced a shape on the ground. “I thought I told you to call me, Allie.”

“Seems a little familiar.” Kima tried to send a smug smile in Allura’s direction, but it probably came across more like a grimace as a sharp pain pulsed through her chest.

Allura stood up and gave Kima a once over (still not making eye contact). “I didn’t have enough magic to heal you completely, so that bandage—” She pointed at the one wrapped around Kima’s abdomen. “—is there to hold your guts together. So stay still and stay put.”

With that, she turned and walked across the camp, disappearing into the shadows beyond the campfire. Kima watched her go, confused, but her eyes just as quickly grabbed on to the looks from the rest of their party. “What are you looking at?”

Everyone except Drake suddenly had somewhere else to look, but Drake didn’t turn away. Instead, he shook his head and said, “I thought you were smart, girl?”

Kima screwed up her face (and definitely didn’t grimace this time from the pain the movement caused in … her entire body) and said (perhaps a little too loud), “Who are you calling girl, dwarf?!”

Drake laughed lightly. “The idiot paladin that hasn’t earned the right to be called a woman yet, I reckon.”

Kima’s vision flashed hot and she almost tumbled off her sleeping mat. “I just took down a dragon in close combat and you dare question my abilities? When I’m up and about, you and I are going to have it out! I can throw a—”

While she was ranting, Drake has slowly walked over to her mat and leaned down. “If you’re going to get all bothered, get bothered for the right reasons,” he said calmly. “All I’m saying is that you get a bit too wrapped up in the wrong things.”

“Oh yeah?!”

Drake nodded, “Yeah, I think so. Just you consider: Allura’s never asked anyone else in this party to call her Allie and that’s the fourth time I’ve _heard_ her ask you, so I’m guessing there have been other times.”

⁂

Allura usually stayed with her companions around the campfire, basking in the comradery, even as she herself stayed fairly quiet. But tonight was different. The battle had gone fairly well. They’d kept the dragon on its back legs almost the entire time—Kima there at the front with Sirus, Ghenn, and Dohla. But then it had let out that blast of fire and its claws had fallen on Kima and the world had gone white. It wasn’t until the dragon was dead and Drake was dragging Allura off of Kima’s still body that Allura really remembered anything else.

Which was foolish and careless behavior. Completely unfitting for someone of her composure. It had just been—Kima, her guts spilling out, the fire surrounding her—it had been too much.

Allura took another swig of the bottle she’d bummed off Dohla and took a deep breath.

And then she’d asked Kima again ( _again_ ) to call her Allie. It was fundamentally unacceptable for her to compromise her judgment like this. She needed to be steady and detached. That was what made a good wizard: distance.

So no more of that. A little pity tonight and then, no more.

“Allura?”

Allura froze. She’d sat on her mat, her back turned to the fire, preferring the darkness of the woods and flickering ambiguity of the flame-thrown shadows. She turned slowly, keeping her face carefully arranged. “Kima. I believe I told you to stay put.”

Kima lurched over, most of her weight on a thick branch under one arm. “Telling me what to do, never works on me.”

Allura looked away and blinked back the tears, even as her lips pulled up into a smile. “That’s what makes you such a problem,” she said shortly. “This is a team, you can’t just rush in and put yourself in front of the danger.”

“I’m sorry,” said Kima and Allura caught her breath. In all their time together over the last couple years, she wasn’t sure she had ever heard Kima apologize to anyone. “I just have to make sure I’m the one getting hit. It’s not right for other people to get hurt when I can take it.”

Allura held that breath. The image of Kima, in the dirt, beneath the dragon’s talons, flashed into her mind again. “You have to trust us to take care of ourselves.”

Allura heard the scrap of the branch in the dirt and then nothing. All she could make out was the crackle of the fire and Kima’s labored breathing. Then: “Do you mind if I sit here?”

Allura shook her head, but couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Kima’s solid body slowly lowered to the sleeping pad. Allura could feel the firmness of her body right there, barely a few inches away. She hadn’t realized how much she would miss that closeness if it wasn’t there anymore … even though she’d never let Kima get this close before.

“I don’t trust a lot of people,” said Kima. There was a thud as the branch smashed into the ground. “I guess this group … some more than others.”

Her breath was so heavy, labored, it made Allura shudder. She took another gulp from the bottle, felt the burn, the warmth in her gut. She’d never tried to find out how much it took to get drunk, but right now she really wished there was enough booze in the camp to find out. In the silence, she took another pull from the bottle, but when she lowered it, before she was done, Kima’s hand wrapped around the bottle. Her fingers were tight on Allura’s, warm, rough. The suddenness of the contact shocked Allura and she gasped. She hoped it was quiet enough that Kima didn’t notice.

Kima took the bottle and took a swig and then coughed and laughed and then groaned, holding out the bottle as if trying to make out details in the shadows. “Shit, is this Dohla’s?” She coughed again and then went back to the bottle before handing it back to Allura. “I know you can drink an orc under the table, but maybe go light on that.”

“Hm.”

Kima grunted and looked around the forest. “Listen, I just wanted to thank you and, uh, say what I said before. Drake told me how you saved me.”

Drake, ever the know-it-all. Allura felt hot and flustered. Maybe this drink was getting to her. “Everyone saved you.”

“That’s not how he told it.”

Allura went to say something, but then thought better of it and filled the gap with the bottle.

Kima sighed. “Look, I—I just wanted to tell you ….”

She trailed off, but Allura could hear the shifting of weight and the heat of Kima’s body at her side, as if she was leaning in. Allura didn’t dare turn her head to look, so instead she looked down at the bottle clasped in her hands.

And then there was a lot more shifting and Kima’s weight moved away, the branch was picked up, and Kima was standing.

“I guess I told you what I wanted to tell you.”

There was another excruciating silence and then: “Good night, Allie.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "kimallura: post-battle healing and yearning" on tumblr!
> 
> I love comments and talking to all of you, so feel free to leave your thoughts! Even key smashes and extra kudos (<3) are cherished! (And if you want to comment, but don't want a response, just add *whisper* to your comment).


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